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Topic: S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers (Read 2247689 times)

I left work an hour early because a big storm was about to hit and I wasn't going to get anything done, worrying, so I came home to put my car safe in the garage and move water around in my rainbarrels.

As I got out of my car, two young men were coming up my driveway with clipboards in their hand. I told them that whatever it was, I wasn't interested. The spokesman continued, 'We just want to come in and check the age of your furnace.' To which I replied, 'I'm well aware of the age of my furnace, I'm on top of it, I'm not interested. Good bye.' And went around the side of the house to the back yard to check on my garden, in this wind. It was just starting to rain.

I come back a couple minutes later and these guys are still standing there. The one guy wants to come into my garage to make a phone call. I told him no and to go away. He persisted. So I got mad. 'I said NO. GO AWAY.' He said something about thinking people would be nicer to young people. As the garage door was closing, I said, 'I would be if you weren't trying to scam me.'

And I called the police when I got inside on the non-emergency number. The officer I spoke to was well aware of what their spiel was and just wanted the details about why I was calling. And told me I did exactly the right thing.

I'm still a little shaky. Although that might have a little to do with the storm and the fact that I was just outside, making sure all my rainbarrels were full.

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After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.

As I understand it, Alexander Graham Bell preferred the term 'Ahoy' as a proper salutation on the telephone.

Hello and ahoy are related, according to Wikipedia:

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo,[5] which came from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman."[6]

"Ferryman! Hello! I mean, Ahoy! I mean, Hail! I mean, the he... with it, I'll swim."

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

As I got out of my car, two young men were coming up my driveway with clipboards in their hand. I told them that whatever it was, I wasn't interested. The spokesman continued, 'We just want to come in and check the age of your furnace.' To which I replied, 'I'm well aware of the age of my furnace, I'm on top of it, I'm not interested.

I read a story when I was a teenager about the furnace flim flammers, that I think may have been retold in one of the Puzo books. It's possible that this is an urban legend, but its use does predate the Puzo books.

Supposedly, the FFF went to the home of a member of an organized crime family, and said that they were there to inspect the furnace. The men in the house let them go down into the basement, where they proceeded to dismantle the furnace and put the pieces all over the basement floor. The FFF then quoted the home owner an exorbitant price to put the furnace back together in such a way that it would pass their "inspection."

You know where this is going..... The FFF were treated in such a way by the homeowner and his cohorts that they knew better than to try their scam in that neighborhood again.

As I got out of my car, two young men were coming up my driveway with clipboards in their hand. I told them that whatever it was, I wasn't interested. The spokesman continued, 'We just want to come in and check the age of your furnace.' To which I replied, 'I'm well aware of the age of my furnace, I'm on top of it, I'm not interested.

I read a story when I was a teenager about the furnace flim flammers, that I think may have been retold in one of the Puzo books. It's possible that this is an urban legend, but its use does predate the Puzo books.

Supposedly, the FFF went to the home of a member of an organized crime family, and said that they were there to inspect the furnace. The men in the house let them go down into the basement, where they proceeded to dismantle the furnace and put the pieces all over the basement floor. The FFF then quoted the home owner an exorbitant price to put the furnace back together in such a way that it would pass their "inspection."

You know where this is going..... The FFF were treated in such a way by the homeowner and his cohorts that they knew better than to try their scam in that neighborhood again.

Your post is very scary, Outdoor Girl. I'm glad that you are OK.

What a silly thing to do! It's so easy to lock people in basements, which gives you plenty of time to call and report to the police the suspicious vandals you believe are damaging your property...

As I got out of my car, two young men were coming up my driveway with clipboards in their hand. I told them that whatever it was, I wasn't interested. The spokesman continued, 'We just want to come in and check the age of your furnace.' To which I replied, 'I'm well aware of the age of my furnace, I'm on top of it, I'm not interested.

I read a story when I was a teenager about the furnace flim flammers, that I think may have been retold in one of the Puzo books. It's possible that this is an urban legend, but its use does predate the Puzo books.

Supposedly, the FFF went to the home of a member of an organized crime family, and said that they were there to inspect the furnace. The men in the house let them go down into the basement, where they proceeded to dismantle the furnace and put the pieces all over the basement floor. The FFF then quoted the home owner an exorbitant price to put the furnace back together in such a way that it would pass their "inspection."

You know where this is going..... The FFF were treated in such a way by the homeowner and his cohorts that they knew better than to try their scam in that neighborhood again.

Your post is very scary, Outdoor Girl. I'm glad that you are OK.

What a silly thing to do! It's so easy to lock people in basements, which gives you plenty of time to call and report to the police the suspicious vandals you believe are damaging your property...

As I understand it, KB, organized crime people don't go to the police for assistance. They take care of things in their own way.

In the original story it was implied that the criminal homeowners knew that they were dealing with petty scammers when the scammers first came to the door. The organized crime homeowner smirked as he let them start their bag of tricks, and then dealt with them harshly. The purpose was to keep small time crooks out of the neighborhood.

Back in May, while Dad was visiting, "American Survivors of Breast Cancer Foundation" called. Dad picked up without checking and found himself promising them a check for $15, which they practically demanded he send YESTERDAY.

They called me a few days later, claiming to be Breast Cancer Survivors Foundation and since I was similarly verklempt, I agreed to send a small donation. (Declining to give them my credit card, which was probably an excellent call on my part.)

Thought that would be the end of it. Oh no.

Next they called back to thank us. Some times two or three times a day. From two different phone numbers. One of which called itself "unknown." At first I thought it was just an error and "too many telemarketers with too few people to call" type of thing. But then they started by saying "We'd like to thank you for your recent donation and would like to know how much you would like to pledge this week?"

I roared into the phone that they had received my donation and it was all the donation they were going to get and to take my name OFF THE CALL LIST.

"Oh, okay," says the lady on the other end.

NEXT DAY, the unknown number calls up again and I picked it up and just listened until someone said "hello". I said hello and waited. They introduced themselves as calling for Survivors of Childhood Cancer and would I like to make a donation.

And that was the point where Lily shouted into the phone "I have done research on your sleazy little organization and found out how you work and if you do NOT remove me from ALL your similarly titled "charities" I will call the police."

"Oh, okay," says the woman ever so calmly.

I did do research into it, BTW. They are "legitimate" in that they DO donate money...however, they give the barest minimum of each dollar to causes that don't amount to a hill of beans. "Breast Cancer Survivors" cleared over $500000 a few years ago, with (supposedly) ten cents (or less than ten cents) of every dollar going to "programs to help cancer survivors". According to the articles I found, $437,000 went to the organization for "costs"...but there was no explanation of what the other $63000 went for....most American Breast Cancer survivors can guarantee THEY didn't receive any of it.

I just remembered this one from years ago. I foolishly agreed to give a small donation to someone supposedly calling for a charity. The caller wanted to know my address so they could come right over and pick it up. They refused to give me an address to mail it in.

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It takes two people to play tug of war. If you don't want to play, don't pick up the rope.

New students of Japanese will sometimes mis-translate it as 'If-if' because 'Moshi' or 'Moshi-mo' is 'if'. But ’moshi-moshi' comes from 'mousu' meaning 'speak'.

If you pick up the phone, and say 'moshi-moshi' and don't hear anything, (connection is bad) you say it again, and if still there's no one there,it tends to get elongated 'Moshi-mooooshiiii' like 'your last chance to answer before I hang up'.

The only other time it's used , like Tofugu said, is when somebody is zoned out and they don't hear you address them, like 'Hey!'.

OK, now they're even admitting that they're untrustworthy scoundrels - but hey, we can trust them, right?

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Dear Friend,

Good day and compliments, I know this letter will definitely come to you as a surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine my future and continued existence.Please allow me to introduce myself.I am CAPTAIN [reacted], in 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment unit here that Patrols the helmand province, Afghanistan. I am desperately in need of assistance and I have summoned up courage to contact you.

I am presently in Afghanistan and I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your assistance to evacuate the sum of $25m (Twenty five Million United States Dollars) to you,as far as I can be assured that it will be safe in your care until I complete my service here. This is no stolen money and there are no dangers involved.

SOURCE OF MONEY:Some money in US DOLLARS was discovered and concealed in barrels at a location in helman province when we conducted a foot patrol and it was agreed by all party present that the money be shared amongst us.This might appear as an illegal thing to do but I tell you what? No compensation can make up for the risks we have taken with our lives in this hellhole.The above figure was given to me as my share and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me, so with the help of a Canadian contact working with the UN here (his office enjoys some immunity) I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package as he believes that it belongs to an American who died in an air raid, who before giving up trusted me to hand over the package to his close relative.

I have now found a secured way of getting the package out of Afghanistan for you to pick up. I do not know how long I will remain here, as I have been lucky to survive 2 suicide bomb attacks by Pure Divine intervention. This and other reasons put into consideration have prompted me to reach out for help. If it might be of interest to you then Endeavor to contact me immediately and we would work out the necessary formalities but I pray that you are discreet about this mutually benefiting relationship.

Please reply to [redacted]

Respectfully,Captain [redacted],United States Soldier:Afghanistan

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

I love how so many of these begin with things like, "greetings friend! Good day to you and best wishes for your health!"

I don't know if these spam emails are all written by someone who has literally never witnessed an actual interaction between two people, of if the writers are all non-English speakers. Anyone who actually calls me 'friend' isn't the kind of person who talks so stiffly.

I think that the opening phrases are standard in the cultures from which many of these letters (or at least the templates) are written. They reflect a sort of stilted 1950s British Business English format. I suspect that the authors write their real correspondence in much the same way, unaware that in North America and Great Britain, the styles have changed drastically.

25 years from now, such spam may start with "OHAI! I can has yur money?"

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."